Reinecke, a cigarmaker who lived here in the 1890s, was secretary of Washington Lodge No. 1 of the Sons of Hermann, a German fraternal lodge. The Cigar Makers issued the call to other unions in 1882 to form the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly.

Contents

Memory

Order of Sons of Hermann

This fraternal group resulted response to ethnic and religious prejudice and discrimination that was her widely practiced in the United States during the 1830s. Supporters of prejudice eventually formed the Know-Nothing Party in 1852. Since German Americans were frequent recipients of prejudice, some of them banded together in the city of New York in 1840 to protect their German culture and heritage by forming The Order of Sons of Hermann. Reputedly, the name “Hermann” was selected when one of the organization’s founders said, in response to the anti-German prejudice, that what was needed was another Hermann, who would conquer the enemies of the Germans. Hermann (the Romans called him Arminius) is a German folk hero, who with his tribal forces, annihilated three Roman legions in the Battle of Teutoberg Forest in 9 A.D. To many Germans he also is the symbol of manhood. In his honor the Germans have erected a tall monument of him near Detmold, Germany. Another statue stands in New Ulm, Minnesota.